


By The Light of Candles

by RemembrancerLirael



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angst, But It's OK They Talk It Out, F/M, Fluff, Judaism, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Shabbat | Sabbath | Sabt, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23193088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RemembrancerLirael/pseuds/RemembrancerLirael
Summary: Jack, David, and Katherine have begun to build a life together, but David is missing something to make their house a home.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber, David Jacobs/Katherine Plumber, Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber
Comments: 7
Kudos: 48





	By The Light of Candles

Katherine had noticed the issue before Jack. She usually did, though. That’s the trouble with loving a girl with a brain, nothing got past her. She had noticed Jack and Davey stealing glances at each other long before they had. When Jack hadn’t proposed, she was the one to point out he didn’t need to give Davey up to marry her. And then she proposed, in her way. To both of them.

This whatever-they-were, it was too precious to put words to, but it worked for them. Jack wasn’t the type to settle down. He knew he’d enjoy sharing a bed with these two; he hadn’t anticipated how much he enjoyed sharing a _life._

That first week together in their small apartment was perfect. That is, until Friday came, and suddenly Davey was walking out the door to have dinner with his folks. Jack had been sick with worry when Davey didn’t come home until Saturday night, but Katherine just shrugged as if she wasn’t surprised. Next week, the same, then every week for six months now.

Jack wasn’t one to talk about his feelings. He was one to sulk. Davey, clueless as he was, thought Jack was growing tired of him. And Katherine sat back, watching these two numbskulls run around one another like rats on a sinking ship.

Until she had enough, that is.

“Jack, it isn’t you,” she patiently explained over dinner on another quiet Friday night. “It’s Shabbat.”

“So he’s going to do his thing. Katherine, we live on the Lower East Side. There’s eight churches-“

“Temples,” she corrected gently.

“Right. That. There’s a bunch of ‘em out there. What’s he out all night and the next day for?”

“Shabbat isn’t something you celebrate outside of your home.”

Oh. Right, then. Davey was going to his folks, going _home_ , and home wasn’t with Jack and Katherine.

* * *

If the tension had been palpable before, it was now unbearable. Katherine gave it three days before one of the boys exploded. For once, she was wrong. They made it to Thursday night before she exploded.

“Jack, stop being a boy and say something already or neither of you is sleeping in our bed tonight,” Katherine snapped.

With that, she grabbed the dinner plates and took them into the kitchen. Davey and Jack heard her angrily cleaning up.

“Davey, it’s just…you gotta understand, you leave every week, and Katherine’s worried.”

“So are you, Jackie boy!” she shouted from the kitchen.

“Right. Yeah. Me too. I miss your stupid mug. I get why you’re goin’ but…what about us, huh?”

“It’s nothing against either of you,” Davey refused to meet Jack’s eyes. “These traditions, they’re part of who I am. I want to share them with my family.”

“And we ain’t family, is that it?”

Davey opened his mouth to respond then thought better of it. Sighing, he grabbed his coat and walked out, leaving Jack’s heart in pieces.

* * *

Katherine hated seeing Jack like this. She knew, from the start, Jack was terrified of losing them. Even when the bulls dragged Crutchie away those months ago, he still didn’t look as broken as right now.

She wrapped her arms around him and took him to their bed, holding him as he quietly cried.

“Have you thought maybe he’s scared of losing you, too?”

“What he got to worry about, Katherine? When we ever made him feel less than family?”

“Jack,” she muttered patiently. “You’re Irish. He’s Jewish.”

“Only my old man was. And what’s that matter? You don’t see me in a church if it’s raining, what’s Davey got to worry about?”

“Jack, sweetheart, I love you, but sometimes you’re hopeless. It isn’t enough to quietly tolerate. You have to reach out sometimes.”

“Like you did for me, eh?”

“That wasn’t a reach, that was a yank, you’re too stubborn for anything else.”

“And you love me for it.”

“Yeah, I do,” she smiled as Jack finally relaxed.

* * *

Davey wasn’t home Saturday night, or Sunday. It wasn’t until Tuesday that he stumbled home. One look and Katherine knew this was the moment where everything changed. Either Jack made a move, or this was the last they would see of him. 

“I think…I’m moving back with my folks,” started Davey, refusing to look at either of them. “I need to be somewhere I can be me, and I don’t think...”

Jack was instantly on his feet, crowding Davey’s back against the door.

“So, what, we ain’t good enough for you anymore? You know it don’t matter to me, to her.”

Katherine pulled Jack back, giving Davey space to breathe, and took both their hands in her own. When the silence continued, she softly kissed both of them.

“Davey,” she asked softly, tilting his chin so that his eyes met hers. “’Are you going back to your folks, or are you running away from us?”

“You know what Ms. Larkin said. You run, there ain’t no way to run far enough.”

Davey sighed. For a moment, time stood still. Later, Katherine would find herself unable to recall who, exactly, kissed who, but they spent the evening reminding how much they needed Davey. When her boys slept to either side of her, she only hoped it was enough.

* * *

They couldn’t sleep much. Jack was too frightened Davey would leave once morning came. Katherine could never be calm if Jack wasn’t. Instead, they held each other close, David occupying the center space that usually belonged to Katherine.

Slowly, Davey began to explain what had previously gone unsaid. How hard it was to be the first of his family born in America. How strange it was to speak English instead of Yiddish at home. Snippets of his family life came floating out, a spiderweb of memories and identity going on for what seemed like hours.

“So what you miss the most, Davey?” Jack asked when Davey finally paused to breathe.

“It’s the candles,” he whispered. “That’s my earliest memory. My Ma lighting the candles, singing the blessing she got from her Ma before they came here.”

“Fine, so, we light candles. Not much of a singer though.”

“Men don’t sing the blessing. That’s for the oldest woman in the family.”

Family. There was that word again.

“Teach me, then,” interjected Katherine. “Let me in.”

“I’d better talk to my folks about…all this.”

Jack understood what was unsaid. This unconventional trio, if that’s what they were, it was easiest on him; no folks to disappoint made it easy to ignore what the neighbors said. Katherine was already cut off for living with Jack. They hadn’t bothered to tell her folks about Davey. But Davey, he had a family, a real family, to lose.

“If they ask you to choose, Davey?” asked Jack. “What then?”

“My family’s right here, Jack. Made up my mind long ago.”

* * *

Friday evening, Davey came home a bit later than expected, this time carrying a small pouch.

“It’s the blessing,” he stammered, handing Katherine a carefully folded paper.

“This penmanship is beautiful, Davey,” she smiled as her fingertips followed the words. “I didn’t know you could write like this.”

“I don’t. I mean. Maybe I do? But no, my Ma, she wrote it for you. And she sent these.”

The candlesticks were simple carved wood, but Davey’s hands still shook while carefully placing them on the table.

“They don’t understand, but, Pa said America is the place for impossible things and,” he stopped, breathed, and this time the words came out without a stutter. “They’re for our _hoyz_.”

Katherine smiled, clearly familiar with the word. Jack couldn’t understand Yiddish, but he heard the reality underneath Davey’s words. Hoyz. _Home._ Family.

Davey patiently taught Katherine the melody, the movements. Jack watched as she covered her eyes in the candlelight and hesitantly made it through the blessing. He couldn’t take his eyes off them. Katherine’s eyes were beaming and Davey’s soft smile said more than words ever could.

This was a home. This was something he could believe in. And he would never let them go. 

**Author's Note:**

> Davey is so clearly Jewish in the 1992 film. His name's David Jacobs, his sister Sarah is a seamstress, it's really clear, but all of that was stripped from the musical. This is my ridiculous attempt to bring that part of David's backstory into the musical 'verse.


End file.
